At night and during the day on October 9, the Israeli armed forces attacked the Gaza Strip. The main targets were command posts, houses of commanders, militants and ordinary soldiers of the Hamas terrorist organization. Israeli Defense Ministry orders military to blockade Gaza Strip
This was reported by The Times of Israel.
The report says that Israeli aircraft continue to strike the Gaza Strip in order to “destroy the capabilities of the Hamas terrorist group.”
Among the targets hit in the last few hours were several command posts, houses of commanders, militants and ordinary soldiers.
The Israeli Armed Forces confirmed that the IDF had struck a building in which Hamas terrorists were staying.
“In parallel, several Hamas operational command centers were attacked, including a three-story command center and a command center belonging to Mahmad Kashti, a senior naval operative of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the statement said.
The IDF also struck a Hamas operational base located in a mosque in the city of Jabalia, attacking an intelligence agent and an additional agent used to direct Hamas terror infrastructure.
In particular, Israeli Defense Forces officer Yigal Levin announced the elimination of one of the militants’ commanders, Rifat Abu Hilal, aka “Abu al-Abad.”
“Gaza residents say that the Israeli army no longer follows the warning protocol of ‘Akesh ba gag’ (knock on the roof), but immediately destroys houses one by one,” he added.
Later, the Israeli Armed Forces reported strikes on more than 500 Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in the Gaza Strip.
The IDF also struck numerous high-rise buildings, one of which, the residence of Ruhi Mashtaa, Hamas secretary and member of the organization’s decision-making group, housed Hamas’s terror command center, from which he helped direct the invasion of Israel.
In addition, three terrorist tunnels in the Beit Hanoun area were struck.
Two Hamas operational sites were hit by an air strike, one of them in a mosque. A strike was also made on an Islamic Jihad facility located in a building where terrorists operate and live.
Meanwhile, the Israeli edition of Ynet news, citing the Israeli army press service, reported that about 80 terrorists were found in Israel during the night.
“While fighting continued in six locations along the Gaza border, at least 800 Hamas targets were attacked by the military,” the publication notes.
Later, the Israeli Armed Forces claimed to have hit a weapons depot.
“This morning, IDF fighter jets struck a weapons depot and an entry point to an underground terrorist tunnel in the Gaza Strip used by high-ranking operatives of the Hamas terrorist organization,” the statement said.
In addition, within the last hour, an IDF aircraft struck a vehicle belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization that had approached the security fence in the Gaza Strip, heading toward Israeli territory.
The Israeli edition of Ynet news reported that Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Galant ordered the military to put the Gaza Strip under a complete blockade.
“There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel,” he said. “We are fighting non-humans and acting accordingly,” the Defense Ministry said.
Events in Israel
On the morning of Saturday, October 7, 2023, the Palestinian armed groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched a massive air and land attack on the state of Israel in several places. The head of Hamas’ armed wing, Muhammad al-Deifa, said that his militants had launched Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. According to him, these actions are intended to protect the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. The Palestinians fired 2-3 thousand rounds into Israel. missiles and simultaneously seized 7 communities in the south.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a statement on the invasion of Israel by Hamas militants and said that the country is “at war.” The government invoked the so-called Clause 40 of the Aleph Act, officially declaring a state of war at 06:00 on October 7. The last time this happened was 50 years ago, during the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
On the morning of October 8, Lebanese Hezbollah announced that it had joined Hamas forces and claimed responsibility for the shelling of the IDF base in northern Israel with rockets and mortars. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad also announced that its fighters had joined Hamas’ attack on Israel.
A number of countries have condemned the terrorist attack by Hamas militants and expressed support for Israel in its defense against aggression. These include the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, Germany, Ukraine, France, Hungary, the Netherlands, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden, Hungary, Norway, Cyprus, India, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Argentina, Australia, and the European Union. A total of 82 countries have condemned the invasion of Israel by Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
